New report exposes how biomass subsidies lead to expansion of GM trees monocultures

The report (link) was issued by Carbon Trade Watch and explores how carbon trading in the EU incentivizes dirty biomass energy. From the description:

Earlier this month Brazilian pulp and paper giant Suzano Papel e Celulose gained approval for the world’s most advanced trial of genetically modified (GM) trees to meet the global demands of biomass energy expansion. The new report from Carbon Trade Watch, “Nothing Neutral Here: Large-scale biomass subsidies in the UK and the role of the EU ETS”, raises critical concerns over the UK’s unprecedented plans to increase biomass consumption as part of efforts to promote a ‘green economy’. The report links the demand for biomass in the UK, the role of the EU’s Emissions Trading System and the destructive expansion of industrial monoculture tree plantations around the world.

A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests

A great docummentary on REDD by Global Forest Coalition and Global Justice Ecology Project.

A manual for climate activists

Beating Goliath is a report from The Democracy Center on struggles against polluting companies (PDF). Gathering case-studies from all over the world, it shows how communities and movements can successfully face big companies and force them to consider their legitimate interests. The report then provides links to useful resources and lists current struggles against climate change which target corporations.

Stuff to read

A selection of articles on climate justice.

Simon Butler on green consumerism:

Most environmentalists would agree consumerism and consumer culture put too heavy a burden on the planet. Consumer spending is central to the capitalist economy, which is why economists and governments also pay it close attention. But most mainstream economists say endless economic growth, which implies limitless consumption, is both possible and desirable. This ignores how it helps fuel our ecological problems. (Links)

An interview with Larry Lohmann, from The Corner House, on carbon trading:

The genius of carbon markets is to create a new asset class that performs alongside, and reinforces, continued fossil fuel use, rather than interfering with it. (Ecosocialism Canada)

Rachel Smolker, from BiofuelWatch, exposes how “climate smart agriculture” contributes to the commodification of nature:

Climate smart agriculture will put a dollar value on the carbon in African dirt, so it can be bought and sold on the markets, and polluters can then buy dirt offsets that will allow them to continue to pollute! There will be a LOT to buy and sell, since there is so much dirt. (Climate Connections)

An interesting article by Julio Godoy, on IPS, on how global trade messes up the “numbers game” on emissions by country:

According to official figures, the European Union member countries have successfully reduced their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), especially of carbon dioxide (CO2), by more than 15 percent since 1990, thus more than fulfilling their commitments under the Kyoto protocol.
However, these figures only consider the emissions from industrial and other domestic economic activities, ignoring considerations such as the EU’s consumption of imports from pollution-heavy, rising economies like the People’s Republic of China, South Africa, India, and Brazil. (IPS News)

New reports on carbon trading

Since the last climate summit, several reports on carbon trading and REDD have been issued. Here is a list of what I found:

• The international human rights organisation the Forest Peoples Programme teamed with several Peruvian indigenous people’s organizations to issue a report on the reality of REDD in Peru (link). The report exposes how indigenous communities are being targeted by “carbon cowboys” to give away their rights on their lands in exchange for promises of generous payments in the future.
• The South African Institute for Security Studies issued an e-book on carbon trading in Africa (link). Edited by the researcher Trusha Reddy, the book presents case-studies on deals made in African countries regarding carbon credits.
• Friends of the Earth (FoE) released a briefing paper on REDD, showing that it has failed in bringing the necessary investment in forest conservation in the global South (link). The NGO ends up proposing alternative sources of funding, like a financial transactions tax or a re-direction of fossil fuel subsidies.
• A coalition of climate justice groups issued the first volume of the “No REDD papers” series (link). The book offers a good compilation of useful articles on REDD and is highly recommended by the great Nnimmo Bassey, chair of FoE.
• The Transnational Institute released an important report on the rise of the “green economy” (link). This is not a report specifically on carbon trading but it is mandatory reading for those interested in how the discourse of “green capitalism” and its variants rests on a complete neglect of power relations and justice issues.
•  India’s National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers, Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action and North Eastern Society for the Preservation of Nature and Wildlife teamed up to produce a report on the Clean Development Mechanism in India (link). In it, the authors show how carbon trading has led to increased pollution and communities displacement.

Another opportunity lost

The story of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, which lasted from 28 November until 9 December, was the same as ever. Before the summit began, the alarm bells went off. We learned that global emissions are rising faster than the worst-case-scenario and that the global mean temperature can increase by more than 5 ºC by the end of this century (Washington Post). We learned that the Kyoto Protocol failed in reducing emissions, as global greenhouse gas emissions rose by 45% between 1990 and 2010 (Yale Environment 360). We learned that Artic sea ice can vanish in the summer of 2015 (Telegraph).

As usual, the international scientific organizations warned that the world is facing dire consequences from climate change. The World Meteorological Organisation noted that thirteen of the warmest years on record occured in the last fifteen years and argued that the floods in East Asia, Central and South America (particularly Brazil) and Pakistan, as well as the drought in eastern Africa should be faced as a warning to act on greenhouse gas emissions (AFP). The International Energy Agency warned that we have until 2017 to reduce emissions substantially, in order to avoid a significant increase in global mean temperatures (ABC). Lastly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more intense in the future – which implies more deaths and more economic losses (IPCC).

In this context, delegates from all over the world met in Durban, to continue a negotiation process that began two decades ago. The stakes were quite high, as the commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 and it is urgently needed to have an agreement on what happens afterward. But the opportunity was lost.

There was a decision on the second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol (PDF), yes, which will start on 2013 and extend until 2017-2020 (to be decided). But the decision says nothing on the emissions reductions demanded to industrialized countries, leaving the most important decision to another negotiating round. All we have, then, are the puny and voluntary pledges made in the Copenhagen Accord (Wikipedia). With the notable exception of Canada, Japan and Russia, that is, all of which refuse further emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.

The major outcome of the summit was the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (PDF), yet another meaningless document that basically postpones into the future the necessary measures to solve the climate crisis. The only thing that the agreement postulates is that by 2015 some kind of agreement on emissions will be ready and that this agreement will come into force in 2020. What a waste of time.

The Climate Justice Now! alliance dubs the outcome of the Durban summit as “climate apartheid” (CJN!). Friends of the Earth International pointed out the utter failure of the negotiating process to deliver meaningful climate action (Climate Connections), while Greenpeace announced a victory for polluters (Greenpeace). The recently formed Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities against REDD+ and for Life expressed its outrage as indigenous peoples’ rights were completely ignored in the final documents regarding the creation of a market for forest carbon credits (Climate Connections).

Unlike what happened last year in Cancun, then, everyone seems to agree that the climate negotiations are going backward. Which is a great reason to unite the 99%, to use a current terminology, against the 1% who profit from exploiting people, animals and nature.

Stuff to read

A selection of declarations by social movements on the COP-17, in Durban

Jubilee South opposes the use of the Green Climate Fund for subsidizing polluters:

The GREEN CLIMATE FUND should serve the needs of the peoples of developing countries. But Parties of developed countries are doing their utmost to ensure that the Fund operate based solely on their terms. (Climate Justice Now!)

La Via Campesina Durban Declaration:

As the Assembly of the Oppressed we are gathered here to demand the transformation of the entire neo liberal capitalist system.  The fight against climate change is a fight against neo liberal capitalism, landlessness, dispossession, hunger, poverty and the re-colonization of the territories of the people’s of Africa and the global South. We are here to declare that direct action is the only weapon of the oppressed people of the world to end all forms of oppression in the world. (Climate Justice Now!)

Oilwatch South East Asia on the COP-17 failure:

The stage for the failure of climate talks has been set long before the 17th Conference of Parties (COP) in Durban, South Africa. The United States, the only industrialized country that refused sign the Kyoto Protocol, succeeded in making the 15th COP in Copenhagen, Denmark fail to issue a global climate deal that could address global warming and climate change. In the Copenhagen Accord and Cancun Agreement, the total carbon emissions cut pledged by capitalist countries are much lower than the pledge made by developing countries. (Climate Justice Now!)

African Civil Society Organizations reject a new mandate in Durban:

A new mandate for a new treaty in place of the Kyoto Protocol should be understood for what it really is – rich countries backtracking and reneging on “inconvenient” obligations, at the expense of the poor and the planet. (Third World Network Africa)

Memorandum of the Rural Women’s Assembly of Southern Africa:

Historical emitters who are responsible for 75% of GHGs must face trade and investment sanctions if they refuse to cut emissions, particularly from African governments, as Africa has contributed least to climate change, but is the worst affected. (All Africa)

Oilwatch decries the petroleum civilization:

It is not difficult to fully grasp the importance and magnitude of hydrocarbons. Modern urban life is petroleum-based: it depends on it for electrical power and transportation, and releases petroleum in its 300 million tons of waste annually. Modern rural life is petroleum-based: it depends on machinery, agrochemicals such as the 136.44 million tons of fertilizers plus millions of tons of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals used annually, as well as the transportation of agricultural products. Healthcare and food systems are becoming ever more petroleum-based as food and health sovereignty are increasingly abandoned. In the United States alone, coal is the source of half of all the electrical power generated. (Climate Justice Now!)

Declaration of the indigenous peoples of the world to COP17:

We, the Indigenous Peoples of the world, united in the face of the climate crisis and the lack of political will of the States, especially the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, demand the immediate adoption of legally binding agreements with shared but differentiated responsibilities, to halt global warming and to define alternative models of development in harmony with Mother Earth. (Climate and Capitalism)

Environmental NGOs reject soil carbon markets:

We, the undersigned civil society organisations from Africa and around the world, strongly object to a decision in Durban for an agriculture work programme focused on mitigation, which would lead to agricultural soils and agroecological practices being turned into commodities to be sold on carbon markets, or used as sinks to enable industrialised countries to continue to avoid reducing emissions. (No Soil Carbon Markets)

Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative on REDD:

We, the Indigenous Peoples denounce the serious situation we are facing; the harmonious relationship between humans and Mother Earth has been broken. The life of people and Pachamama has become a business. Life, for Indigenous Peoples, is sacred, and we therefore consider REDD+ and the carbon market a hypocrisy which will not impact global warming.  For us, everything is life, and life cannot be negotiated or sold on a stock market, this is a huge risk and will not resolve the environmental crisis. (REDD Monitor)